Lagos explosion: Police arrest suspects

Some suspects were yesterday arrested in the ongoing investigation of an explosion that killed Pius Oladele, the chairman of Sand Dredgers’ Association and injured a police officer on Monday at Amuwo-Odofin/FESTAC link bridge.

The arrested persons, The Nation learnt, were linked with the phone call the deceased received shortly before the explosion.

The late Oladele left his office for home that fateful morning; he was reluctant to go back to the office, as he complained to his second wife, Seun, of having usual feeling.

The first phone call he received on one of his phones was reportedly from the policeman that was with him when the blast occurred. Other calls came in at about 10:54am, 11:06am, 11:25am and 11:30am respectively.

The persistent call eventually forced the Ondo-state -born father of five out of bed and he went back to his office where he was killed shortly after his arrival.

Police sources confirmed to The Nation that the suspects are currently being interrogated by Homicide detectives.

Meanwhile, his neighbours and friends have accused the police of not conducting any investigation into the incident. They alleged that Pius was assassinated.

The neighbours condemned the Lagos State Police command for attributing the explosion to an electrical fault.

When The Nation visited the deceased’s home at Lake View Estate, it was learnt that he had survived murder attempts before the attack that eventually killed him.

A lottery operator said: “Who didn’t know Dele in the area? He was a very generous man and that is why you can see many residents trooping in to see his family. Before his death, many people had been urging him to contest for Local Government Chairman of Amuwo Odofin in the next election.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state police, Ngozi Braide, insisted that preliminary investigations showed that the explosion was caused by electrical fault and not a bomb.

“The experts have said the explosion was caused by an electrical fault and not a bomb. No one can fault that for now but investigations are ongoing”, she said.